WebProNews

The Coming Link-Buying Storm

Search engines and webmasters continue to play a cat-and-mouse game over the purchase of links to build one's site ranking; what's going to happen when the cat pounces and a little webmaster mouse cries foul over the advice they received?

PubCon - Unjust Link Buying Worries

So Worried that You Forgot to Compete While on the link buying panel at WebmasterWorld's Pubcon a few people were pushing that you might need to consider how Google will view your current link buys 5 years down the road, and that they may hurt you then for what you do now. Upon hearing that I said something like "less than 5 years ago I bought spammy links and if I did not I probably wouldn't be speaking here right now". That got a cheer from the crowd. Who wants to be worried about what Google thinks or does 5 years from now? That is no way to innovate or take marketshare from current market leaders.

PubCon: Treading Lightly On Link Buying

The dominant search engine, Google, doesn't have a problem with nofollowed paid links, but few webmasters want to pay for something that brings minimal value to their sites.

7 Reasons Google's Paid Link Snitch Plan Sucks

Matt Cutts blogged that Google would like you, the average search engine user, to report on sites you feel are displaying links for cash. This created a firestorm of negative responses from the SEO, webmaster, and free speech crowd. Below, I put together what I feel are the top 7 reasons Google's paid link snitch plan sucks. I linked to my inspirations (No payment requested!).

Perspectives on Link Buying

I like to buy links. In fact, I love to buy links. As powerful and relevant as possible. The more they are such, the more they will help search engine rankings. Search engine rankings help sales. I love to buy sales even more than I like to buy links. I love to scale this process too. I am a capitalist. Capitalist theory may have it’s downfalls, but overall it has served our country pretty well. I think a case could be made for just about any link on the web being purchased in one way or another. You can read my thoughts on not being a link communist here.

Link Buying and Link Development

I've recently been on a particularly aggressive link buying spree. Although as a SEO I know buying links means buying some degree of placement on search engines, and Google is the main target. However, I'm buying for informational sites - communities and blogs - with no real revenue streams. So instead of trying to link bomb for money keywords, I'm trying to hit longtail search traffic, which may bring in much more targeted traffic - traffic either more likely to join a community or subscribe to a blog feed, or else click out via paid ads.

SES 2006: The Lighter Side of Link Buying

The discussion on buying links at SES San Jose got a little more philosophical than Doug Caverly might have expected. Conference attendees were greeted with a band of Linking Jedi Knights expounding on the light and dark side of the link buying Force. Yes, on Day Four of the conference, I'm reaching.